20 CANADA AND THE EMPIRE.

the Government to the people. The majority of
farmers who stand in no fear of foreign competition
 and desire to be cheaply provided with the
manufactured articles that they use, naturally
incline to the Low Tariff party. Particularly is this
the case with the farmers of the North-West.
They are of many nationalities, British, American,
Scandinavian, Russian, German, Icelandic, and
they care not whether the articles they buy are
of British, Canadian or foreign manufacture so
long as they are cheap and good. They are much
cut off from the East, talk of “our country” as
meaning Manitoba and the North-West Provinces,
and are not likely to welcome a demand for an
Imperial sacrifice. On the whole, we were told, the
great obstacle to inducing many a foreign settler
to come to Canada rather than to the United States
is a fear that by settling under British rule he will
be drawn into Imperial wars and martial preparations.
 He is pleased with Imperial defence, but
does not want closer Imperial connection. The
farmers are a hard-working, hardy and independent
class—men who have “lit out” for the edge of
civilisation, fought Nature and won, and are now
on the road to prosperity. So self-reliant are they
that they have come to look upon a preference
upon their wheat as a kind of dole the acceptance
of which would argue a lack of faith in their power
to compete against the rest of the world, as the
following incident which occurred whilst we were
at Winnipeg will show.